New Job, Used Pants

Last week, I started a new job! I'm proud this is my first job with a substantial focus on sustainability (ask me about jet fuel!).

That said, new job, new culture, and I don't even know: what is "business casual" these days? With the Pacific Northwest being generally casual, and having spent the last 12 years in tech, which is even more so, I now didn't know how to dress. In my experience, business casual includes a wide range from "jeans with a nice top" to "suit - no tie required". Insert panic. 

I wasn't worried about tops. In the last 3 years of work-from-home, I had perfected the Zoom work mullet: blouse on top, sweatpants on the bottom. However, I was pretty sure that I should own some non-denim pants, at least until I saw how my colleagues dressed. 

Of course, enter Goodwill. In-person thrifting is the fastest way to try on many brands all at once. 

I scored these charcoal slacks and paired them with an Alfani faux-wrap blouse from thredUP.

For a little bit of fun, I paired them with these Mia color-block booties (also thredUP).

I also picked up these navy slacks, and paired with a bright green cable knit sweater, and taupe booties.

All in all, I got 3 pairs of pants for just shy of $40.

The navy Nine West slacks run $48 new; the eggplant Gloria Vanderbilt brushed cotton pants also cost $48; and the charcoal George slacks ran $32. In total these would have cost $128 brand new resulting in a 69% savings. Not too shabby to quickly refresh the wardrobe, and with little risk if I were to discover that jeans are the norm. 

Happy Early Birthday!

Do you like surprises? Do you like discounts? That sounds to me like a celebration!

Who wouldn't want this delicious giant (hand for scale) snicker doodle for 67% off?

There's an app for that! Too Good To Go knows that restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores have leftover items at the end of the day that they don't want to sell as "day old" or nearing their best by date. For most stores, this means those food items go into the trash.

So why not help those businesses recoup some of those losses, prevent that food waste, and reward us customers for participating with a 50%+ discount? This isn't a foreign concept - apparel stores do sales at the end of a season, right?

The idea: businesses list their leftovers in "surprise bags" at the end of the day. You get a fun surprise and enjoy a steep discount for taking the risk of not knowing exactly what you're going to get (check them out if you have few dietary restrictions and love adventure!). I used to get surprise bags at my favorite olive oil store, and love that this idea is expanding to other food businesses. 

Here's a peek at the app experience (and click the link above to download the app yourself, or visit your smartphone's app store):

 

Here you can see I'm viewing a local cafe whose surprise bag is valued at $12 and being sold for $4 (a 67%) discount. It also shows a pickup window, usually an hour or so before closing the same day, or reserve ahead for the next day. I know this cafe, and am expecting pastries in the bag, although some of the stores describe the contents a bit. For example, a grocery store shares that it will include prepared salads from their deli.

 

You simply click the reserve button, and pre-pay. When you arrive for pick up, you just show the app and click a couple buttons to acknowledge the pickup. 

I was super pleased with the contents of my surprise bag: 4 large pastries, including the snicker doodle at the beginning of this post and...

this gorgeous berry fritter,

and this savory bacon cheese scone,

and this still-super-moist crumble coffee cake.

Hungry yet? Go sign up for a surprise bag. :) I definitely think I got over $12 of value, and was thrilled to eat my $1 scone for lunch yesterday, and $1 coffee cake for breakfast today.

As you purchase from Too Good to Go, you can feel good as they send you confirmation emails that let you know about your positive impact:

Thank you for saving your first Surprise Bag. For each one rescued, you save 5.5lbs of CO2e - the same amount that would be emitted if a lightbulb was left on for 29 days. 

Today there are 16 deals within 5 miles of me (outside Seattle) and 142 deals within 15 miles of me (includes downtown Seattle and Bellevue). I can't wait for more businesses to get on board!

Frugal Friends

By now you've seen we can be quite successful finding great pieces thrifting, either online or in person. But I haven't shared all my tips yet to coming home with amazing pieces you'll love and at the right price. 

By far, the best tip for in-person shopping is to go with a friend who knows your style. Thrift store racks can be chaos, and it can be easy to miss a gem by moving too fast. You and your shopping buddy can keep an eye out for each other's tastes. My dear friend T knows that I love anything with bold print (especially animals!) and I know that she prefers anything in 100% cotton and handbags that are iridescent. She's been the person to find over half of my in-person purchases.

This week, we went to Capitol Hill Goodwill, and she spotted this patterned sleeveless blouse for me. Is it circles? Is it diamonds? Yes. 

The double layers keep it from being sheer. I will like this sleeveless for warmer days, or layered with a flowy sweater for cooler days.

 

And, of course, the price needs to be right. This Rose + Olive blouse was in excellent condition for $15. It was hard to find an exact "new" price, but similar blouses by the brand on Poshmark have reference prices ranging from $35-50, so I'm pretty pleased.

On the same outing, at Lifelong Thrift, I was super excited to find this adorable little llama planter by Kikkerland.

 

Originally sold for $18, this little guy was priced at $5 and its color tag was on discount, so he came home with me for just $4. He's now with my growing collection of plants and will eventually hold a succulent.

So, if you're having a bit of a dry spell seeking those special finds, gather your treasure hunting buddies and try again!

Fabulous Aquafaba

I was happy to acquire Cooking Scrappy by Joel Gamoran a while back - the whole premise is to use up parts of food that we traditionally think of as waste. Using these parts allows us to get more bang for our buck and also prevent some of the 30%+ of food that is wasted each year in the US. 

Today, I wanted to play with aquafaba. Aqua-what? Aquafaba is the liquid from cooked chickpeas (or leftover juice from a can of chickpeas), and is often used as an alternative to egg whites in vegan baking. I think I've most often seen it used in vegan meringues.

In Cooking Scrappy, Joel has a recipe for aquafaba ranch, and as a ranch-loving household, I decided to give it a whirl!

First, drain your chickpeas, and keep all that delicious aquafaba. Use the beans in a recipe of your choosing. Don't usually cook with chickpeas? I have a recipe for an easy hummus down below.

Next, gather your additional ingredients: salt, apple cider vinegar, sugar, garlic, mustard seed...

... and blend with a stick (immersion) blender until thickened. You'll then slowly blend in some vegetable oil too. I was honestly shocked as how thick and creamy this got. This ranch has no dairy, where our favorite ranch has buttermilk as an ingredient. It is now no longer a mystery to me how aquafaba can be used as an egg white alternative.

Next, gather and stir in your final ingredients. Juice and zest from a lemon, chives, oregano, onion powder, and black pepper. While I *love* lemon, don't over-do it, as it will thin down your dressing and make it more vinaigrette than creamy.

Finally, dress your favorite salad or dip a veggie. I love me some mini bell peppers for their natural scoop shape.

Verdict: I will definitely make this again. If you are a Hidden Valley Ranch groupie, it isn't 1:1 for flavor, but I quite enjoyed this, and it's dinner guest-worthy. 

Now, if you need a recipe for chickpeas, here is my quick and easy hummus. While it calls for some aquafaba itself, there will be plenty leftover for your ranch recipe. This recipe also saves you $, costing about $1.50 for the recipe vs $4 for the competing size of prepared hummus.

Hummus

• 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
• 3 to 5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Drain chickpeas and set aside liquid from can.

Combine remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. (Add small amounts of chickpea liquid as needed.)

Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

Place in serving bowl, and create a shallow well in the center of the hummus. Add a small amount of olive oil in the well.

Garnish with parsley, sumac or a dash of cayenne.

 

Not only are these recipes good for reducing food waste and saving money, but chickpeas are also a great source of fiber and protein, so... get on with your happy snacking! :)

Eco-Friendly Exercising

So this story starts with a fencing project. We had a couple sections of fence that were rotting and about to topple over. T started the project, demoing the wood panels with our neighbor. I come to check on the progress, and T says: "Well we got the wood down. Now time to dig up those cement plugs that were holding the posts. Your turn."

Whaaa? Well, challenge accepted. I start digging, and lift out one of the 50lb cement blocks. I'm feeling pretty She-Hulk about the whole thing, like look at me LIFT!  The good news is I know to lift with my legs and didn't hurt my back. The bad news is I don't do a lot of weight-bearing exercise, and the next day my thighs were 100% in pain (can Jello hurt?). 

(How I felt until the next day. But really this is an awesome collector figurine from Kotobikuya.)

Now it's in my head that I should probably start doing some weight bearing squats, and all I have at home is 3lb dumbbells. 

The great news is that as things are starting to re-open, including gyms, the thrift stores are starting to fill up with the fitness equipment that gym-goers had purchased to bring their workouts home. I've been easing my way back into the office, working 1 day/week downtown, which is conveniently 1 block from a Goodwill. I check it out for goodies during my lunch break, and have seen the supply rotate each week, and just a few weeks in, I scored: a pair of 8lb dumbbells for $6 each. 

The cheapest I'm seeing these new are $17 each. Savings for the pair is $22, and I've kept a like-new piece of equipment in circulation! With the supply-chain constraints for various products, it's an added benefit to redistribute as much existing supply as possible. 

It leads me to wonder what other at-home hobbies we'll start to see flood the thrift stores and garage sales: puzzles, games, craft supplies?

Planning for Halloween... with Poshmark!

Each year, I start planning for Halloween well ahead of time. If I'm going to thrift and DIY the bulk of the costume, I need some lead time to scour online and in-person thrift stores. This year it's a little harder to get excited about Halloween. I almost positively won't be in the office, and am still unsure if there will be any evening festivities. Finally, I convinced myself it doesn't matter. There are enough video calls for me to still enjoy dressing up, and I can always just spend the day photo-bombing T.

I settled on an idea, and 30 minutes later... success! I placed my first ever order on Poshmark and crossed my fingers. Poshmark is a different model than threadUP. Where threadUP is consignment and they manage the sale and shipping out the items, Poshmark is more of a marketplace or platform where you can sell items directly (the seller manages the sale and the shipment themselves). There's pros and cons to each model. In the marketplace model, more money will go to the seller.

I lucked out, and this first experience was fantastic. The seller even re-used a shipping box!

A sneak peek. This is the only hint you're getting at this time. You'll need to wait for Halloween for the full reveal. The item was in awesome condition - as noted by the seller, she had only worn it once before, possibly for a costume party herself?

A win-win for both of us, I only paid $9 for somethings that retails at $25 new, and the seller recouped some funds from something that was just going to take up space in her closet. And the planet wins, because we get multiple uses out of a novelty item. 

And after Halloween, if I decide I'm done? Poshmark provides me an easy link to relist (Reposh) the item.

What are ways you keep one-time use items moving to new people to enjoy?

Thoughtful Threds

Today's theme is green, green, green!!

Green: eco conscious shopping
Green: great color, I look awesome in it. ;)
Green: $$$

So, I was feeling like buying some new clothes. I'm in a mission: I need more green. Someone on TV or at work or something was wearing green, and it stuck in my mind. And when I'm on a mission, I gotta go online. That brings us to ThredUp, one of my favorite online thift shops.

I get on the site and learn about this Choose Used partnership they're doing with Olivia Wilde and Conscious Commerce. They take second-hand tops and screen-print phrases on them that draw attention to good choices like:

• I wear used clothes.
• Thank you for choosing used.
• It takes 700 gallons of water to make one new t-shirt. (

10% goes to their circular fashion fund.

I chose one shirt from the Choose Used campaign (in mint!), and a green tee with pockets, and a green sweater for this fall.

I love that the confirmation email tallies up my savings for me: spent $56.78 and saved $100.22. I also love that in the past years, they've improved their packaging to remove plastic. It came in a simple cardboard mailer and tissue.

Meanwhile, as I'm composing this post, I run into my friend Kim A. She's just come from dinner with her friends at a nearby restaurant, and one of her friends brought tupperware for the leftovers! No disposable take-out containers, for the win!

Overall, great evening: I saved 64% on some second-hand clothes in like-new condition, one of which has a great conversation starter on it, and saw a friend making positive steps of her own.

Mindful Mopping

I absolutely love the convenience of my Swiffer but don't love the single-use pads.

It was time to try a DIY replacement, but so often I haven't posted DIY cleaners because they are complicated or not super effective. Then I came across this recipe from Housewife How-To's, and it's just 5 ingredients that I already have at home: 2 cups water, 1/4 cup alcohol, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/8 tsp dishsoap, and 5 drops essential oils (optional).

Katie of Housewife How-To's warns not to use dishsoap with lotion or castille soap, because it will alter the effectiveness and leave streaks. She also wrote this recipe for a mop or Swiffer Wet Jet, but I tried it with a regular Swiffer.

Important note: if you are a pet owner, do your research about what essential oils are safe around your pets. I'm reading too many stories about pets getting sick from just breathing around diffusers. I chose lavender for this batch.

Simply mix all ingredients (I used an old peanut butter jar, which I'll use to store the leftovers).

Then, I replace the Swiffer pad with an old towel or t-shirt. This one was almost the right size, so I didn't even alter it, but you cut cut your fabric to size and finish the edges if you prefer. Tuck the edges into the same holes you would the Swiffer pad, and you're ready to go!

Mop your floor and be prepared for *how effective* it is. (Gross!)

Once you're done, you can throw your mopping cloths in the regular wash.

This method is a winner for a few reasons:

• You get more use out of retired fabric.
• You don't use any more single use pads.
• The cleaner is very cost-effective, costing under $1 for 22 ounces of fluid. 

Goodbye Goo

I'm constantly bookmarking cool tips and tricks online, and eventually I get around to trying some of them. This video was intriguing, because it's a simple recipe with just 2 ingredients, and for something I could actually use: Goo Remover! This is supposed to remove challenging sticky or waxy messes:

 

Looks pretty easy, right? Well, I wanted to see for myself if it worked or was just movie magic.  Here are my items that need some label removal. The two little glass jars are pretty clean with just a little residue. The smaller plastic jar still has the majority of it's label stuck on, and the pump bottle had the label peeled off, but was almost entirely covered in label glue on both front and back.

 

I mixed up some of the Goo Remover (equal parts vegetable oil and baking soda), and slathered on a thick layer on each gooey surface...

 

... and waited. The two smaller glass jars cleaned up quite easily after about 1 minute. The plastic jar and plastic pump bottle tool a little more effort. I left the goop on for about 2 minutes, scrubbed at the labels a bit, and then added more goop for about 2 more minutes. While the residue on plastic was a bit more stubborn, the remover still did the trick!

A quick wash later (you need a little bit of dish soap to get the oil off), and I have clean, un-sticky containers for reuse.

Comparing to "Goo Gone", which goes for $7.50 for an 8 oz bottle, this mixture costs about $0.60 for the same amount. And... this mix doesn't carry a "harmful or fatal if swallowed" warning. Win-win!

Re-Use, Re-Cycle, Re-Creative?

We're all familiar with thrift stores, second-hand stores, and consignment shops offering a variety of goods from clothing to toys to furniture to small housewares. But have you heard of reuse shops that specialize in arts and crafts supplies? Let me introduce you to Seattle ReCreative, located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle.

This store is roughly 1000 square feet of many types of creative supplies plus room for classes and workshops, kids parties, and community events. What is cool to see is the broad variety of supplies they carry. Some more traditional fine art supplies, to common paper and fabric crafts, to more obscure ideas like vinyl records (seriously look at Pinterest for all the amazing ideas to paint on, cut up, or melt records into new objects!) and empty plastic bottles (perhaps to mix paints or store beads in).

Here's a sampling of some of the great inventory today. A huge box of of rubber stamps:

Buttons - use them for their original purpose or to craft an adorable angel ornament:

Paints galore:

Scrapbooking or cardmaking paper. Full 12" sheets and smaller pieces:

Canvas stretcher bars for the serious painter:

A whole wall of yarn! Some partial balls, and some completely new skeins, along with knitting needles: 

And the reason for me going today. They carry a large selection of fabrics, and I scored about 14 yards of holiday fabric. Check out my next post for what I'm doing with it. ;)

Not shown here were stacks of postcards, greeting cards, National Geographic magazines, vintage photographs, tile, beads... great for collage, card-making, school projects, mosaics, jewelry-making. Today, I observed that most items were going for about 10-20% of what they would cost new/retail. For example, the fabric was just $2/yd, an incredible skein of fuzzy sparkly yarn was $2, and cards and postcards were just $0.10.

This store has so much potential for both shopping and donating. How many times have you tried a new craft and decided it wasn't for you? Donate the leftovers! How many times have you or your kid wanted to try a new craft but you're worried about the investment just to give it a try? Shop at a steep discount and see if you like it. Even better, you can just buy a few pieces of something without purchasing full sets. I think too about teachers who end up having limited budget for supplies or even spend some of their own money: think how far that same money would stretch here, for art supplies for their students or creative materials for bulletin boards.

Ultimately, this store allows for low-risk creative pursuits, while funding a community space and keeping many pounds of leftover arts supplies out of the landfill.

Brand: Perfectly Posh

I discovered Perfectly Posh through my friend and neighbor, Abbie. It's a pampering brand - think bath, body, and spa for men and women. 

It's one of those home party, independent consultant businesses, which I have a love/hate relationship with. But, I saw this ad, and was intrigued to learn more: 

Affordable, natural, and guilt-free? Sign me up! 

Abbie was generous enough to give me several samples so I could try a variety of the products, and I was beyond impressed. Here were some of my favorites: 

• BFF Face Wash: the featured ingredients are aloe, grapefruit oil, and peppermint oil. Being oil based, your skin feels refreshed not stripped, and the strong peppermint is a great way to wake up in the morning!

• Night and Day Moisturizer: the featured ingredients are aloe, olive oil, and lavender oil. This is a thicker moisturizer that I thought would be too heavy for daytime, but it soaked in to a silky finish after just a few minutes, leaving my 30-something skin feeling plump again. The subtle lavender smell makes you feel like you're in a spa. 
• End Mend Shampoo and Conditioner: These were the most impressive. I have brittle hair with a wavy/frizzy texture. I don't know what sorcery this is (well, we do - it's *all* the oils and seed butters), but my hair was soft and smooth after a single wash. Without products, my hair was drying into nice, frizz-free curls! You see commercials promising results after trying something just once, but this was a product that delivered. 
• Hello Sweetie BFYHC (Big Fat Yummy Hand Cream): a subtle vanilla scent and a formula that soaks in to be non-greasy. 

I have never been so pleased with a natural pampering products company before, where the fragrances are light and pleasing from essential oils, and the products seem very effective. 

Shop online here: www.PerfectlyPosh.com/HereDeares.